Need, Awareness, and Contacting Propensity

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Recent research on citizen-initiated contacting propensity has generated two different findings: one of a parabolic relationship between contacting and neighborhood social well-being, the other a negative relationship between the two. It has been argued that the latter pattern is to be expected in cities with central complaint-handling units, owing to the effect of such units on citizen awareness of urban service systems. Results reported here from a city with a central complaint unit yield the expected pattern. In addition, survey research data provide a test of the need-awareness model that has been posited to explain the two patterns.